Pair of MLB Draft selections lead Commodores into Super Regionals

The Daily Herald

Tuesday

Jun 4, 2019 at 3:24 PMJun 4, 2019 at 7:58 PM

After helping extend one successful streak for Vanderbilt baseball over the weekend, J.J. Bleday did so again Monday.

The Commodore junior outfielder became the program’s 16th first-round selection in the Major League Baseball Draft when he was tabbed fourth overall by the Miami Marlins, giving Vanderbilt at least one pick in the draft every year since 1991.

A finalist for the prestigious Golden Spikes Award, Bleday’s 26 home runs lead the nation, and his .739 slugging percentage and 178 total bases lead the Southeastern Conference. He has reached base in 87 of his last 88 games and takes a 41-game on-base streak into this weekend’s NCAA Super Regional series — the program’s eighth in the last 10 years — against visiting Duke.

Bleday was named both SEC Player of the Year and Most Valuable Player of the SEC Tournament as the Commodores won their first regular-season league title since 2013 and their first conference tourney crown since 2007 and eighth super regional appearance in the last 10 seasons.

Junior right-hander Drake Fellows went in Tuesday’s sixth round (173rd overall) to the San Diego Padres.

Fellows improved to 12-0, tying for the national lead in wins, with his complete game in Friday’s 8-2 NCAA Nashville Regional victory over Ohio State. The Plainfield, Ill., native ranks 18th nationally with 117 strikeouts. His wins this season are the third-most in Commodore history, two short of Tyler Beede’s record 14 set in 2013 that Carson Fulmer tied in 2015. His 292 career strikeouts are the program’s seventh-best total.

The two were instrumental in Vanderbilt’s three-game sweep of the regional tournament, as the Commodores followed Friday’s Ohio State win with a pair of victories over No. 2 regional seed Indiana State — 8-5 on Saturday and 12-1 in Sunday’s championship.

After outscoring its three regional opponents 28-8, Vanderbilt faces a Duke team that was the No. 3 seed at the Morgantown Regional but emerged over host West Virginia and No. 2 Texas A&M. The Blue Devils, in the Supers for the second straight year, lost two of three at Hawkins Field to open the 2018 season.